Expired film

This is a little film geek-y, but please bear with me. The $100 darkroom included a shopping bag full of expired film. Some people like expired film for its unpredictability, but I’d never tried shooting any. The Tri-X 400 shouldn’t be too hard to handle, the Portra 160 might have some interesting colors, but the 12-year expired Tmax 3200 could be trouble. Internet wisdom tells me that faster films are subject to more degradation and fogging.

There is no formula. It’s all dependent on how long ago the film expired, how it has been stored, how you shoot it, how you develop it, and a bit of luck. After much reading I decided to try overexposing my Tmax by two stops (800ASA). Beth grabbed the Holga 135BC, I loaded up the Olympus 35RC, and we headed out to Maudslay State Park.

Most of my shots were junk, but I was able to salvage a few in post-processing. The results are very grainy and very cool.